Woman recalls her childhood days in Bartlesville

Monday

The following interview of Mildred Todd was conducted on April 4, 1994, in Bartlesville by Joe L. Todd for the Oklahoma Historical Society.

The following interview of Mildred Todd was conducted on April 4, 1994, in Bartlesville by Joe L. Todd for the Oklahoma Historical Society.

Todd: Ma’am where were you born?

MT: I was born here in Bartlesville on the west side of town at 14th and Virginia and it was called Starvation Corner.

T: Why was it called Starvation Corner?

MT: Gene Fowler had a gas station on the corner of 14th and Virginia during the Great Depression and everyone was hungry and he named it Starvation Corner.

T: When were you born?

MT: Oct. 3, 1924.

T: Who was your father?

MT: My father was Fred Albert Todd.

T: And your mother?

MT: My mother was Mable Todd. Her maiden name was Reed.

T: Did you go through school in Bartlesville?

MT: Yes, I started at Horace Mann School and then went to Central and College High.

T: What year did you graduate?

MT: I was with the class of 1942. I would like to tell you about Horace Mann. We lived just on the west side of White Rose Cemetery and the cemetery was our playground and we walked through the cemetery on the way to school. We crossed the viaduct over the railroad then to Horace Mann at 11th and Jennings. In those days my father worked for the Smelters and we were called Smelter Rats. We were poor but Mama and Papa never talked about the bad times and we didn’t know we were poor. We had chickens and a cow and Papa butchered a hog, so we had plenty to eat.

T: How many people lived in Starvation Corner?

MT: There may have been 50 or 60 people and all of us kids played together.

T: What games did you play?

MT: We made our own games and toys. I remember one time, my older brother Jack found a card board box and he got an old steering wheel. We put that steering wheel in that box and we drove all over the county in that box. Papa didn’t have money to buy us toys so we made our own toys. We would find a metal ring and with stick we rolled that ring all over the place. We did get roller skates and we learned to skate around the Mausoleum at White Rose Cemetery. As I said White Rose Cemetery was our playground except on Halloween. We didn’t dare go in the cemetery on Halloween. I don’t know why; I guess because it was Halloween. We also played hockey. Each of us kids would get a stick and a tin can and we played field hockey with those sticks and that can. We didn’t know how to play hockey but we had fun trying. It was during the Depression that Papa lost his job at the Smelters when they had a cutback to save money. They had to lay off people and Papa was one laid off.

T: What did your father do at the Smelters?

MT: I really can’t tell you what he did, but that Smelter smoke was bad at times. When he lost his job, he put in a big garden so we still had food to eat. Grandma Reed lived next to us and Jack and I would go there and she would feed us even though we had just eaten. We found out later Grandma was not a good cook, but it tasted good to us.

T: How else did the Depression affect you and your family?

MT: After Papa lost his job, he went to the grocery at 14th and Elm and asked if he could buy groceries on credit and the owner told him, "No." I won’t tell you the name of the store or the owner. Papa then went to the Viaduct Grocery and Mr. Robinson owned it and allowed Papa to buy groceries on credit. Gus Mnich also allowed Papa to buy on credit. It wasn’t too long before Papa got a job with the railroad, and the man that owned the grocery store and 14th and Elm came to the house and told Papa he could now buy groceries on credit. I won’t tell you what Papa told him, but Papa sure told him off and told him to leave his house. We never shopped at that grocery again. But the Viaduct Grocery and Gus Mnich carried people all the Depression and let them buy on credit.

T: Did you climb Circle Mountain?

MT: Oh yes. Circle Mountain was also our playground in addition to White Rose Cemetery. There was a whole group of us that climbed Circle Mountain and we would play up there and never got hurt. We had to cross Liza Creek and Sand Creek to get to Circle Mountain, but that was part of the good time we had. There was a bluff up on Circle Mountain and we would sit there and we could see for miles. We spent the whole day up there. We also climbed the Mound and played up there. We also climbed the barn and the chicken house and all the trees. There was a whole group of us kids that ran around together.

Another story is about a man named Frank. I won’t tell his last name. He lived in Starvation Corner and had a several large dogs and he enjoyed letting the dogs out and chase us. One day, he let the dogs out and one bit my brother. When Papa came home Tom was crying and Papa asked and Jack told him that one of Frank’s dogs bit him. Papa took Tom down to Frank’s and Frank said, "Jack, did you have to bring your dad to fight for you?" Papa took care of the dog then told Frank, "If you turn your dogs out on the kids one more time, I won’t be coming for the dogs, I’ll be coming for you." Not long after that Frank got in a fight with another man and Frank was stabbed and had to go to the hospital. All of us kids gathered in an old garage and Grandma went to the Holiness Church and I told everyone we had to pray real loud so God will hear us and we prayed and prayed that Frank would die, not to get well. He did survive and was a changed man and tried to be nice to us kids, but we never trusted him.

T: You mentioned the shake rods on the oil wells.

MT: There was a powerhouse between Starvation Corner and the Smelters and it powered the shackle rod oil wells. One power house could run quite a few pump jacks and went back and forth. We thought those shackle rods were fun to play on. We would get on them and ride and there was one that went over a low place and we could hang from the shackle and go back and forth. Papa caught us and he never punished us, but he explained that if the shackle rod broke, it would roll up and if we were on it, it would kill us. We never played on the shackle rods again. I remember waking up one night about 2:00 in the morning and Mama and Papa were awake and there was even a light in Grandma Reed’s house. Papa went outside and everyone was awake and no one knew why. Then someone said, "The powerhouse quit." That powerhouse for the oil wells ran day and night and it made a constant noise. When it quit, it got real quiet and woke everyone up.

T: What stores did you shop in Bartlesville?

MT: We shopped at the Viaduct and Gus Mnich Grocery stores. Mama made all of our clothes, so we didn’t shop for clothes. When Papa went to buy flour, Mama would give him a small swatch of cloth to make sure he got the same pattern on the flour sack. In those days flour came in cloth sacks with a design and people would make clothes out of the sacks, and it would take 2 or 3 sacks to make a shirt or dress. I still have Mama’s old treadle sewing machine on which she made our clothes.

T: How many movie theaters were in Bartlesville?

MT: We went to three, the Lyric, Arrow and the Odeon, which became the Osage Theater. Every Saturday Papa would give each of us a dime and it cost a nickel to get in and we had a nickel to buy popcorn or a drink and we would spend all day at the movies watching the cowboy serials.

T: Did your movies have the news of the world?

MT: The movies did but not the serials and we were too young to pay much attention to the newsreel, but we enjoyed the color cartoon.

MT: I helped Mama cook and Jack helped Papa outside. Mama fed the chickens and I had to take a stick and keep the birds from eating the chicken feed. Papa milked the cow but Jack and I were never allowed around when he milked her. Jack and I had to take the cow to the field south of our place and we went to get her every evening. Her name was Bess. I remember Jack and I went to get Bess and it was getting dark and we started seeing the lightning bugs. We had a great idea. After supper we went out and caught a whole jar of lightning bugs and after Mama and Papa went to bed Jack let those lightning bugs loose in the house. I can still hear Papa yelling, "What in the hell is going on?" Well Jack and I spent the rest of the night catching all those lightning bugs and putting them back outside.

T: How did you celebrate Christmas?

MT: We could never afford a Christmas Tree and we would get in the car and drive around town and look at all the Christmas lights and the trees in the windows of the houses on the east side of town. I remember one Christmas. Aunt Pearl, Papa’s sister, lived north of Pawhuska and we went there one Christmas and there was a big tree and lots of toys on the tree. We had a big dinner and then Santa Clause came in and greeted us and there were things on the tree and looked so good. Aunt Pearl had 4 kids and all of us kids gathered around the tree and every gift was special. One thing I could never understand is how Santa knew exactly what each child wanted. He would take a toy off the tree and call a child’s name and hand that toy to them and it was just they wanted. There was a doll and I really wanted that doll. Santa took hold of the doll and I knew he was going to give it to one of the other girls and he said, "I think this doll is for Mildred." I really loved that doll. Papa loved Christmastime and it just broke his heart when we found out that he had been playing Santa Claus all those years and loved doing it.

T: What about the other holidays?

MT: On the 4th of July, Papa bought us firecrackers and they were lady fingers, very small but we were thrilled to get them. We also had homemade ice cream and Papa bought a case of pop and a watermelon and put them on ice. Another thing about Christmas, we got an apple and an orange and that is about the only time we got them.

T: You mentioned going to town on Saturday.

MT: Yes, every Saturday after supper, we would put clean clothes on and get in the car and Papa wanted to get downtown by 6:30 or 7 p.m. We would park at 3rd Street and Johnstone. The men would gather on the street corner and talk and the women did their shopping while the men were talking. All of us kids stayed together and the boys never joined the men until they were invited and it was just a passage into manhood to be asked to join the men. I remember the men talked about crops and the Smelters and Reda Pump. The men that worked for Phillips or Cities Service didn’t come downtown on Saturday night. The stores closed at 9 p.m. on Saturday night and then it was time to go home. As we left, Papa would always tell everybody we would see them next Saturday night.

One more thing. The carnivals came to town and always set up on the west side of town. There is an empty field south of the Phillips Research Center and that is where they set up. We went down and there was one barker that had 5 African cannibals dressed up behind him. There was an older black man named Ben that was a friend to everyone and he would come over to the house all the time. We looked at the cannibals and Jack said, "Isn’t that Ben?" He yelled, "Hi Ben, what are you doing all dressed up like that?" and Ben said, "Hi Jack, just making a little extra money." Needless to say the carnival barker came down and said, "You damn kids get the hell out of here." The next day when the cannibals came out Ben was not with them.

T: At this time were you aware of the rise of Hitler in Germany?

MT: I may have been, but it didn’t mean very much to me at the time.

T: Do you remember when Germany invaded Hitler in 1939?

MT: Yes. We had moved to 920 Oak Street and the house is still there. We were on the front porch and Mama came out and told us that Germany had invaded Poland. Jack was sitting on the porch and his feet were resting on a sandstone step. He took out his pocketknife and carved the date, September 1, 1939 and his initials in that rock. He said that things were about to change and war is coming and said it was just a matter of time before we get involved.

T: How much older was your brother?

MT: He was born in 1922. He was drafted and was sent to Europe and went through the Battle of the Bulge, but he could never talk about it.

T: Why did you leave Starvation Corner?

MT: Papa worked at the railroad crossing on 1st street by the Crystal Ice Plant. I guess 1st Street is now Hensley. His job was to put chemicals in the water so deposits would not collect in the pipe of the boiler. If this wasn’t done, the deposit would build up and the boiler would explode. A man had been working longer than Papa and was going to take Papa’s job and he was offered one in Kansas. We were getting to move to Kansas when the man decided not to take Papa’s job. Papa had rented the house at Starvation Corner, so we moved into the house on Oak Street.

T: Where were you Dec. 7, 1941?

MT: First, let me tell you that Papa and I went to collect the rent at the house in Starvation Corner. A man named Withrow was renting it and he had a friend there named Harold Todd. We met and found out that we were not related. We started dating and he was working for the Chevrolet Garage downtown. We were married July 3, 1941. When Pearl Harbor was bombed on Dec. 7, I was pregnant with my daughter and I wondered what kind of world was I bringing my daughter into.

T: The first part of the war we were not doing too well. What did you think of this?

MT: I was still thinking what kind of world would by daughter be growing up in, and I knew that Harold would have to go one of these days. He began working at Reda Pump during the war, and because he was married, he wasn’t drafted until 1943. As the war dragged on, Papa was called in for a physical. He was born in 1900 and had been in World War I and was sent to Siberia with the 31st Infantry. He was told by the draft board that if the war lasted much longer they may start drafting the WWI veterans but he didn’t have to go.

T: How did rationing affect you?

MT: We had ration stamps and while Harold was overseas I lived with Mama and Papa, and Mary Ann was born in 1942. The one thing I remember, toothpaste came in a metal tube and when the tube was empty you had to turn that metal tube in to be able to buy another tube of toothpaste. The empty tube went into the scrap metal pile. I was raising my daughter and Mama and Papa dealt with the rationing. During the war Mama got a job at the railroad crossing on 7th Street. 7th Street is now Adams. There was a little building there and when a train was coming, she stopped traffic with a red flag. The man that had that job had been drafted and women were replacing the men. I was worried about Harold because he couldn’t write and tell me where he was or what he was doing. For a short time I worked as a telephone operator downtown during the war. I did that until the war ended. I really wanted to stay on with the telephone company, but by then I had 2 children and in those days mothers stayed home with their children.

T: When did your husband get home?

MT: After the war ended he didn’t have enough points to get out and he was an automotive mechanic and he was a driver for the Nuremberg Trials. He said that he drove Chief Justice Jackson several times while he was there. After he had enough points, he came home.

T: Did you stay home with your children?

MT: Yes, I had three, 2 boys and a girl and stayed home with them until they went to college, then I went to beauty school and worked as a beautician for about 10 years. After that, I got a job at Union Bank cooking for the employees. I really enjoyed that.

T: Anything else you want to talk about?

MT: My first job was while I was in high school. I worked for a photographer named George. I thought that was his first name but found out George was his last name. I only knew him as George. Every time I got a new dress he would take my picture. I worked for him until he retired. He had his studio in his home not far from the Viaduct and was a very nice man. He had no family and Mama would send a meal to him at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have so many stories and memories about Bartlesville. I even have a book that my youngest son put together and it is called "Starvation Corner."

T: This is an excellent interview. I want to thank you.

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